Warriors Book 1: Watch the Sky
by Taylor Raye Pember
Summary: Rated T for graphic violence. Right after the battle with the Dark Forest Place of No Stars , Jayfeather recieves a prophecy proclaiming the return of SkyClan. Please enjoy this story.
1. Apprentice (Briarlight Story Arc Pt 1)

**Chapter 1 – The New Apprentice**

**Warriors 1: Watch the Sky**

**Act 1: After the Battle**

Bramblestar sat on the Highledge looking down at his assembling clan. He had just called a meeting. Squirrelflight looked up at him from the roots of the tree. Amberkit and her siblings peeked out from the nursery. Brightheart nudged them forward with her nose. Amberkit squeaked as she toppled over into the mud. The rain had just recently cleared up and the clancats had been repairing the camp after the devastating battle between the clans and the Dark Forest, also known as the Place of No Stars.

After all the cats were settled, Bramblestar looked up at the stars. And he began to speak the words that had been spoken since the dawn of the clans.

"Cherrypaw. Molepaw. Step forward, please."

The two apprentices exchanged a glace and Cherrypaw quivered in excitement. They padded forward to the bottom of the tree and looked up at Bramblestar.

"I call upon my warrior ancesters to look down on these apprentices. They have trained to learn your noble code and I commend them to become warriors in their turn." He paused and breathed in deeply. "Molepaw. Please step forward. Do you promise to uphold the warrior code with your _life_?"

"Yes. I do" Molepaw answered with determination.

"Then by the power of StarClan, I give you your warrior name. From now on, you will be called Molefur, for your courage in the battle against the Dark Forest warriors. Cherrypaw, step forward. Do you promise to uphold the warrior code even at the cost of your life?"

"Yes, I will forever honor the warrior code."

"Then by the power of StarClan I give you your warrior name. From now on, you will be called Cherryblossom for your swiftness and courage during the battle."

The two new warriors stepped back and let the clan call out their names.

"Molefur! Cherryblossom!" Poppyfrost and Berrynose yowled out the loudest of all the clan.

After the clan stopped cheering Poppyfrost and Berrynose ran over to the newest warriors. They congratulated them enthusiastically. Jayfeather watched on warily. After the ceremony was over, and the new warriors started their vigil, Jayfeather made his way back to his den. Briarlight had been watching the ceremony from the entrance to the medicine cat den. Jayfeather settled himself down in his nest. He was very tired after the battle and he needed the rest. Briarlight dragged herself over to him.

"Isn't it wonderful. We have two new warriors!" she chirped excitedly.

"Sure. Whatever. You need to rest. And so do I. Now goodnight, Briarlight."

"Goodnight, Jayfeather."

Suddenly, Jayfeather jerked his eyes awake, though he wasn't in camp. He was in StarClan's hunting grounds. An older cat with a broad face greeted him.

"Thank you, Jayfeather. For uniting StarClan. We have defeated the Place of No Stars for good. Now we can go back to normal…"

"Almost! An aged, white cat with a graying muzzle stepped beside Yellowfang.

Yellowfang yowled at the stranger and Firestar stepped between them.

"Stop, Yellowfang!" Firestar yowled. "He's not a bad cat. He's from SkyClan!"

Heads turned twoward the cats. SkyClan hadn't been in StarClan since Cloudstar had sworn to never believe in StarClan again. It was forbidden to speak about in StarClan. But now, all of the cats were starting to notice fading cats, most of whom were from the long-lost SkyClan.

"I have a prophecy for you, Jayfeather." Cloudstar rasped. " _'An evil cat will soon return the long-lost SkyClan back to home.'_ "

Everyone gasped in shock and thunder shook the skies. Rain poured and fire flashed. It was as if StarClan was being destroyed. Blood splattered at shrieks from the river were carried away in the wind. Jayfeather tried to wake up. But he couldn't his eyes were glued to the scene. A large group of cats were running around for their life. Yowling as lightning flashed and fire burned the camp. Cats tried to climb trees but as soon as they did the trees burst into flames.

"YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN SHARE THIS NEWS WITH THE CLANS! YOU MUST HELP SKYCLAN WHEN THEY ARRIVE! SAVE SKYCLAN!" Cloudstar shrieked over the cries and yowls shown in the scene below them.

Jayfeather awoke, blind again, but with the images of his vision last night still flashing through his mind. He shivered and Briarlight looked at him with curiosity. He looked up at the sky noting the heat that fell onto his face. He realized that the sun was up. It was chilly, though. Almost leaf-bare. Then he realized that tomorrow was the full-moon. He would have to share the news about SkyClan with all of the clans.

Jayfeather stood up and shook out his ruffled pelt. He padded over to the pile of rocks and clamored up to the Highledge and called to Bramblestar. He was greeted by Squirrelflight and held down a pinch of betrayal. He was escorted into the den.

"Yes, Jayfeather?" Bramblestar asked.

"I have received a prophecy." Jayfeather answered.

"From StarClan?"

"No."

"If not from StarClan, then by whom?" Squirrelflight asked.

"I received a prophecy from SkyClan's ancient leader: Cloudstar."

"Who?" Bramblestar had no clue what SkyClan was.

"SkyClan used to be the fifth clan but was driven out a long time ago, by the other four clans. Firestar rebuilt the clan and since a disaster has struck the clan, they are coming here to become the fifth clan once more. Now we need to prepare. We need to help them and I need to tell the other clans at the Gathering."

"Why must _we_ help SkyClan?" Bramblestar asked.

"I don't know. But if we don't, they will all be destroyed. There is a great darkness coming and SkyClan needs to be there to help us with it. It'll be even worse than the Dark Forest war."

"Okay, then. We will help SkyClan." Bramblestar announced.

"Oh, and one more thing, Bramblestar. Briarlight and I have been thinking about it for a while, and we have decided that Briarlight will become my apprentice."

Jayfeather dismissed himself and carefully climbed down the rock pile and back to his den. Briarlight was performing her exercises when he arrived.

"Hey, Jayfeather."

"Hello, Briarlight. I'm going to the Moonpool right now. I must talk with StarClan. It is urgent. I'll see you later, then."

"Goodbye, Jayfeather. I'll be waiting. I'll do my exercises without you."

"Thank you. Goodbye."

Jayfeather left the medicine cat den and left for the Moonpool.

**-END OF CHAPTER ONE-**


	2. Nightcloud (Briarlight Story Arc Pt 2)

Onestar gaped at Nightcloud and Breezepelt. Nightcloud's ears were pressed down on her forehead. She was hissing and Breezepelt looked scared, too.

"Of_ course_ I'm positive. My son and I _will_ leave the clan. We will become _rogues_! We will never return! I HATE YOU CROWFEATHER! I WILL ALWAYS HATE YOU UNTIL MY DEATH!" Nightcloud ran out of the camp. Breezepelt looked around and followed his mother.

Jayfeather fell into the ancient paw prints, etched into the stone path leading up to the Moonpool. At the Moonpool, Jayfeather circled it, looking deep into the heart of the water. Then he lay down and touched his nose to the water.

Images flashed through his mind. Fire. Famine. Death. Blood. He felt the emotions of countless cats. Then he saw a cat, which he had hoped that he would never see again: Sol. He was leading a large group of cats towards the lake. An elderly cat was leaning on a dark ginger tom. Then he saw the old, white cat standing before him again.

_You must help them. They will need you more than ever. They must begin to believe in StarClan once again. I was wrong. Do them that favor._ Then the voice was gone and Jayfeather awoke at the Moonpool. It was almost sunset. Jayfeather got up and stretched. He started the walk back to camp.

At the camp, Jayfeather grabbed a shrew from the top of the fresh-kill pile. It was soggy, but Jayfeather couldn't afford to be picky, leaf-bare was a very merciless season, and they would need all of the fresh-kill they could acquire. He padded back to his den. Briarlight was waiting for him.

"Hey, Jayfeather, we're running low on catmint, should I collect some more?" Briarlight looked expectantly at him.

"We're running low on _catmint_? Seedkit already has a cough and with leaf-bare closing in on us, it could turn to greencough! You should have already collected some while I was gone. Get some and give a dose to Seedkit!" Jayfeather snapped.

Briarlight was taken aback by his anger. She had only been his apprentice since this morning. She didn't think she was expected to know and do all of it so soon. She walked out to get a piece of fresh-kill. When she returned she found Jayfeather searching among his bedding for something. She noticed a tuft of black fur settled near her nest. She hooked it with a claw and waved it in front of Jayfeather's face. He sneezed and thanked her. Then he squeezed into the storage cleft. Briarlight watched him disappear into the small hole and then went to collect some catmint.

Jayfeather looked around the cleft. He felt guilty for snapping at Briarlight, but there were a lot of things zipping through his thoughts. He looked down at the piece of fur. _Hollyleaf!_ He felt like yowling her name up to StarClan. He felt like a wave of despair was washing over him. He felt very depressed when Hollyleaf disappeared into the tunnels, but this was for real. She was truly dead and he felt utterly hopeless. He looked around the storage cleft one last time and then he collapsed onto the floor.

Jayfeather only awakened when he heard a commotion inside the camp. He heard Dustpelt hissing and spitting and Cloudtail was yowling. He looked around, still blind. This was real. His first thought was that Sol had brought SkyClan already.

"_Crowfeather_?"

Jayfeather was instantly awake. As soon as he heard his real father's name he immediately ran out into the camp. Crowfeather was alone. He looked upset.

"Nightcloud and Breezepelt are rogues now and I have nothing else in WindClan, except for my mom, but they don't expect her to live after the battle. May I please join ThunderClan with my former mate and three kits?" Crowfeather pleaded.

Bramblestar looked him over. He looked like he doubted Crowfeather. Then he spoke:

"You may join ThunderClan."

Crowfeather's eyes brightened and Dustpelt hissed. Cloudtail turned his back to Crowfeather and stalked back to the warriors den. The rest of the clan had mixed feelings. Arguments began among the cats and Jayfeather's blind gaze flowed over the clan and happenings.

"Silence!" Bramblestar yowled. "He will be allowed to join! On one condition: that he do apprentice duties for all of leaf-bare. Then you will be accepted into our clan fully."

"Yes and make him sleep in the apprentices' den and make him train all over again." Thornclaw yowled.

Most of the clan seemed to approve that decision and Bramblestar added that Crowfeather would have to train in the way of ThunderClan after leaf-bare. After the decision, the cats disbanded into their own private groups. Jayfeather felt a light breeze flow through his fur and he turned back towards his den. He looked up at the stars for just a moment and thought he saw a face. Then he closed his eyes and slept.

Nightcloud stared down on the ThunderClan camp. She saw exactly what just happened and it infuriated her. She felt her blood boil over and she yowled up to StarClan. It was a battle cry and she hurled herself from her point down to the camp below. Breezepelt followed her and she went directly to the apprentices' den and started attacking whatever she saw and she felt her claw rip fur. She clawed in that direction and was almost immediately welcomed with a series of blows to her flank.

"I've been waiting for you, Nightcloud!" Dovewing hissed.

Nightcloud started to back out of the den when Breezepelt rammed into her rear, and she was squashed against the wall of the den. The wall split apart and Nightcloud was pressed against the ground as the cats ran over her. As soon as she got the chance she got up and ran out of the camp. Breezepelt escaped and followed her.

"And don't ever come back!" Ivypool hissed. She had her ears flattened against her head. Spitting, she stalked up to Brambletar's den and called him. He was already awake and he was looking around in alarm when she came in.

"What happened, Ivypool?" he asked her, warily.

"Nightcloud and Breezepelt attacked. They ran away. They shouldn't bother us for a while, but I'm thinking that you should keep a look out for her and her son. We don't want them to bother us anymore." Ivypool reported.

"Okay, we'll send out extra patrols to keep an eye out. Thank you. And goodnight." Bramblestar dismissed Ivypool and she went back to her den, except for the fact that it wasn't a den. They would fix it in the morning.

"Goodnight."

**-END OF CHAPTER TWO-**


	3. A Sad Death (Briarlight Story Arc Pt 3)

Earlier that same day…

Nightcloud watched Briarlight leave the camp. She didn't see Jayfeather so she proceded with her plan. Briarlight immediately padded over to Jayfeather's garden. There were a few leaves worth picking. She continued to cut them off with her teeth. Then Nightcloud attacked!

She ripped Briarlight's fur and finally pinned her down to the ground. Nightcloud stomped on Briarlight's throat repeatedly, and she didn't stop when Briarlight started to spit up blood. The blood pooled around them and Briarlight started to choke. Nightcloud finally stopped, when Briarlight had died.

Crowfeather was in the elders' den all day long. Literally. He even ate in there. He had to care for the elders all the time he was in there, except for meals. He immediately thought of going back home. But, then he realized that they wouldn't let him back. He would stay in ThunderClan and prove his loyalty.

Jayfeather was watching him. He had the mouse-bile for ticks. Suddenly he heard Amberkit's cough. The he remembered! Briarlight and the catmint!

"CRAP!" he mewed.

"What is it, Jayfeather?" Crowfeather asked with interest.

"I just remembered Briarlight. Have you seen her? She went out yesterday and hasn't come back yet. I need that catmint for Amberkit! She might _die_!"

Jayfeather rushed out of the elders' den and ran back towards his den. It was empty. Then everything faded and he saw the forest. He must be dreaming! Briarlight came to him.

"Jayfeather. Follow me." Briarlight called to him.

Jayfeather followed her and noticed something odd about her. She could _walk_! On her hind legs as well as her forelegs.

"Briarlight! You're _dead_?" Jayfeather stuttered in shock.

Briarlight looked sad to see her mentor so upset. "Yes. Nightcloud killed me right before she attacked the apprentices' den."

They continued to walk until they came to a pile of red snow.

Briarlight stopped and pointed at the snow with her tail. "When you wake up, come here and uncover what is gone. Bring it back to camp." Then she was gone.

When Jayfeather awoke, he smelled a familiar scent and then it was gone. It was Briarlight's aroma. It saddened him and then he smelled something strange. Then he realized that there was the mingled scent of Sol. It was SkyClan!

Jayfeather walked out and heard Bramblestar talking to Thornclaw. He heard the words _elder _and _moving._ Then suddenly Cloudtail screeched, "_TRAITOR!_"

Sol entered the camp as Cloudtail lunged forward. Suddenly, blood started to pour out onto the ground, though it wasn't Sol's. It was Cloudtail's. Everyone stared in shock at what happened. Sol started to lick the blood off his claws and sheathed them. Leafstar stepped forward. Her muzzle was gray and she was obviously old. She padded slowly and cautiously towards the center of the camp. Bramblestar walked out of his den and greeted her.

Suddenly, Sandstorm jerked up from her mid-morning nap, and ran as fast as she could towards the SkyClan warriors.

"LEAFSTAR! You're here!"

Leafstar's eyes lit up as she saw her old friend.

"SANDSTORM! I never thought I'd see you again! How are you?"

"I have two kits now and three—I mean, two, grandkits now. Jayfeather, Lionblaze, Squirrelflight, Leafpool, come here, please!"

All four of them stepped forward.

"Squirrelflight and Leafpool, are my daughters. And Jayfeather and Lionblaze are Leafpool's sons."

"Who's the third?" Leafstar inquired.

"Hollyleaf. She died a warrior's death. In the battle with the Dark Forest." Leafpool looked away.

"I'm very sad to hear that."

"At least I know I will see her in StarClan," Leafpool said, confidently.

"Well, that's very good." Leafstar said.

Bramblestar called to everyone and said to let Leafstar and her warriors have some fresh-kill. The pile was miniscule but it would have to fill all of their bellies for the night. Tomorrow, Bramblestar would decide what to do with them.

Meanwhile, Leafstar instructed her warriors to only eat what they needed to tide themselves over for the night. They padded over to the small pile and picked their prey. Jayfeather had already eaten and had gone out to look for what Briarlight had told him to get.

Thunder had started to rumble in the distance, and Jayfeather tried to hurry through the forest.

When Sol had tried to get a piece of fresh-kill, Cloudtail and Dustpelt stopped him. They hissed and growled.

"Touch our food and you _die,_ traitor!" Cloudtail hissed.

Sol stepped back from them and purred. "Like _you_ could _ever _stop _me_!"

Suddenly a burst of lightning flashed from the sky and electrocuted Sol. Sol was in the center of the camp and his skeleton showed through his long fur. His eyes glowed blue and he shook violently. He started to burn and immediately blood started to pour out of his veins. And then it was over. Sol was officially dead. All of the kits' eyes were as big as full-moons and they shuddered in horror.

"Good riddance to an evil cat." Dustpelt said happily.

Jayfeather looked at the pile of snow with second thoughts. He was scared and nervous to see what was there. Then, he pushed his nose into the snow. He sniffed for the thing that he had been asked to find. Then he dragged it out: it was Briarlight's mangled body.

**-End of Chapter Three-**


	4. Vengeance (Briarlight Story Arc Pt 4)

Jayfeather pulled a large thing out of the snow. It smelled thickly of blood and Nightcloud and – _was that _BRIARLIGHT?! What he had pulled out was Briarlight's body. Jayfeather dropped her and nuzzled her fur. He lifted his head to StarClan and wailed. Then after a few hours of vigil, he took her back to camp.

Everyone was shocked. Sol had just been electrocuted. StarClan obviously hated him, too. Suddenly everyone cheered, for the death of an evil cat. Then Millie ran over to the tunnel. She had scented Briarlight and was happy that she had returned. Then she saw it: Jayfeather was carrying Briarlight's body. Millie screeched in horror—her daughter was dead. There was a look of frustration and determination in Jayfeather's eyes as he dropped her body. Then he stormed out of the hollow and ran out of sight.

He ran to the Moonpool immediately. He had to ask StarClan to bring Briarlight back.

When he got there, he dipped his nose into the water and hoped for dreams to come. Suddenly, he saw the moon over the water. He was at the lake. There was a silhouette staring at the water. It turned towards him and whispered his name. _Jayfeather._ It said. Jayfeather followed the voice to the creature. As he came towards it, he noticed that it was Yellowfang. He rolled his eyes and was about to head back when Yellowfang ripped her claws down his back. He yowled and he felt blood start to spill from the cuts.

Yellowfang looked even more ragged than usual. She was obviously still healing from the battle with the Dark Forest. Her eyes were filled with rage. Jayfeather didn't know why until he saw the pile of dead StarClan warriors. There were too many to count. He thought all StarClan cats disappeared after they died. But these were rotting and had obviously been there for a few weeks. Jayfeather looked closer at the pile; he noticed the green coloring at the edge of all of the wounds: infection.

He turned back to Yellowfang.

"What happened, Yellowfang?"

Yellowfang looked down at her feet and it seemed like she was about to wail in agony. Jayfeather looked back at the bodies. Then he noticed a certain smell around all of the cats. It was the smell of healing herbs. Jayfeather leaned in and tried to recognize any of the faces. He was shocked when he saw Spottedleaf, Mudfur, Barkface, and several other medicine cats. They were bloody and mutilated. But he was curious about how Spottedleaf was still there. He watched, with his own eyes, as she disappeared from the world. Yet, she was here, in StarClan, mutilated, infected, and dead.

Then he woke up. It wasn't like he faded out of the dream; he just burst into real life. It was odd, like he wasn't truly wanted there.

**-End of Chapter Four-**


	5. Time Warp (Time Story Arc Pt 1)

**Hello, my loyal fans. I am sooooooooo sorry for taking this long to update. In return I am making this update a long one, full of interesting details and shocking secrets could potentially destroy the clans around the lake. Anyway, I have three things I need to say to my fans.**

**DO NOT review on this fanfiction if you are going to say something about my mistakes. I DO KNOW that I make MANY mistakes and when people review just to tell me how many mistakes I make, I makes me feel the urge to end this fanfiction, much to the dismay of the people who actually care to read it for what it is about, and not to look for mistakes the other people make. I type verrrryyy fast so I make quite a few mistakes in chapters, so stick with me. I try to proof-read it for grammer, spelling, and punctuational mistakes, so please, not more reviews OR PMs about mistakes. This is not to insult the people who pointed out my mistakes in the beginning, since this was my first fanfiction, and I want to thank them for that, so that I was aware of them.**

**I ALSO KNOW that a lot of the storyline plots make little sense, don't worry, that means they will make sense in the long run. I do everything for a reason. I also have a lot of run-on sentences. I know about them, too, because that's how I speak and write. I am a random person, with a lot of random thoughts, stick with me!**

**And finally, I will start to write more of both of my fanfictions during the summertime**

**ENJOY!**

It was starting to get warmer. The season of new-leaf was almost upon the cats of the clans around the lake. It had been almost two moons since Jayfeather's disconnection with StarClan. He had received no more messages that day and was starting to lose faith in StarClan. Time had gone by so fast, and a few things had drastically changed. For starters, Graystripe had gotten sick, it was during Cinderpelt's time as a medicine cat when the prophecy came, and it had been passed down through the moons, to each medicine cat: Green blood flows from the gray cat, whose life knows no end.

Graystripe had started to spit up blood, red blood tinged with green. It was horrifying and yet it hardly fazed Jayfeather. He put up with it day after day, continuously, until suddenly, Graystripe had died. His soul left and he returned the next day as a slightly older cat. It was a scary thing and a few of the cats were getting scared of him, especially after he died a second and third time and still managed to return, just a bit older than he was the last time.

Jayfeather slept that night, with depressing thoughts, of suicide and dead cats. As he looked around in his dream, he noticed that the stars were shifting in the sky to form cats from generations ago. It shocked Jayfeather to see the cats of StarClan come to his face and begin to speak. They spoke of the recent days and began to speak of the older days and the beginning days and left Jayfeather to listen until morning.

When Jayfeather awoke, he was happier. He began to care more and more about his patients and talked more to his clanmates until he started to notice the chill in the air. He looked to Graystripe, who seemed to be doing a lot better.

"Hey, Graystripe, isn't it a little bit late for cold weather?" Jayfeather asked.

"Of _course_ not, it's leaf-bare still."

Jayfeather looked at Graystripe in shock and stared at him for a few minutes. He seemed to have gone back in time.

**DUN-DUN-DUUUUN! Left you hanging, huh? I know, I had to do a short chapter but don't worry, I will be posting the next chapter in the next few months, and I PROMISE IT! Please stick with me for Chapter "-4.1". This is a nine chapter story arc under a subtitle which will be revealed soon. And for fans of my other Fanfiction, please stay with me. I lost the actual story so I have to find it again. It will not take too long. PLEASE R&R!**

**-END OF CHAPTER FIVE-**


	6. Cats (Time Story Arc Pt 2)

Jayfeather could still not believe he had possibly turned back time. Graystripe was not sick and he looked ten times younger than he had when he had left him. But then, Graystripe's face morphed into a horrifying creature. Jayfeather closed his eyes, when he heard the rasping noise, and opened them again to see Graystripe in the flesh!

He could see, but he didn't truly want to.

"SKYCLAN WILL DESTROY YOU!" Graystripe rasped in a high-pitched voice that sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard, not that Jayfeather, or Graystripe for that matter, knew what either of those things were. He repeated those four words until Jayfeather closed his eyes and cried out to StarClan.

When he reopened his eyes, he was blind again, and Graystripe was normal, saying, "What's wrong Jayfeather? Are you sick or something?"

Jayfeather was panting heavily and didn't know how to answer him. He just wanted to go back home, but, then he had a slight revelation. What if he was sent back in time to save Graystripe, and be told that SkyClan would destroy him? Then, he shook his head. That omen wasn't from StarClan.

Jayfeather found himself thinking about how that message came to be. How could Graystripe have turned into that…that _demon_? Who was it from, and was he destined to find the answer?

Jayfeather found himself at the old entrance to the underground cave, when he realized that he had moved from the camp. There was a peculiar scent around it. Though it was caved in, he could tell that cats – or something else – had been there.

The sound of rustling leaves and claws scrape the rock made him turn around.

He found himself face-to-face with a cat he had never smelled before. It was a cat that smelled of crowfood and the CarrionPlace. There was also the scent of blood and other cats on it. The cat was young, probably the age of a new warrior, about ten moons old, Jayfeather guessed, but he didn't seemed nice. The cat growled and hissed.

"Get out of the MeetingPlace!" the cat growled.

Jayfeather flinched and suddenly, another cat came up behind Jayfeather. It smelled the same. That cat seemed gentler.

"WHO ARE YOU?!" Jayfeather screeched, "GET OUT OF THUNDERCLAN TERRITORY!"

Jayfeather lunged at the cat in front of him, but he dodged easily, causing Jayfeather to fall forward into the mud. Jayfeather quickly got up and lunged again, but he was pulled back by the other cat.

He landed on the rock, very hard. Then he forgot.

**-END OF CHAPTER SIX-**


	7. The Seven (Time Story Arc Pt 3)

The Elder Leaders sat around the great stone table, rich with symbols made by ancient claws. They glowed green in the light of the moon. Jayfeather's battered, and bruised body lay in the center. There were deep grooves that had been made to let blood from the sacrifices drain into a basin in the floor. They were inside a hidden section of the cave, where few had been to. Not even the rest of the ancient tribe had been allowed to join.

Jayfeather started to stir. The seven Elder Leaders shuffled their paws to shift away from the feisty newcomer. Jayfeather sat up to be engulfed in the darkness of blindness. Suddenly, his body was torn apart, blood splattered all over the walls of the cave, He gasped as one of the Elder Leaders, a strong, young tom-cat, grabbed his heart from his chest and ripped it out, causing more of his life-giving juices to burst from his body. He, then, lay down on the sacrificial table and his blood drained into the basin.

All this was done in absolute silence, not even Jayfeather had the chance to scream as his body was torn apart.

Rock looked down from his perch as Jayfeather's soul was released from his body. The Seven, as the circle of Elder Leaders had been called for thousands of moons, dipped their paws in his blood and drew undefined characters and symbols on the walls, along with the chanting.

It started off slow. Calm and reaching a giant crescendo, eventually deafening all of the cats. Then, the cats who had gathered outside of the meeting began the chant. The whole cave was alive with the roar of the Seven, the sure of many, the surviving members of the three original tribes who lived around the lake, moons before.

"A-hoo, ah-hoe, la la boso-ma, ti do-so la fa ti ti coro sofolalalala haaa – la-foomba doomge, forence. Hees he…" it went on and on, eventually turning into a bunch of sounds that made no sense, "dfm fcfbbczxsdjjmdcbgh dhjsdhj-djf –dn d-djdjdjsnhj sjusjuas ajasjsh,sjds…"

The cave came alive with glowing symbols again and Jayfeather's body rose from the table and the glowing symbols morphed into a green ball of energy that flooded Jayfeather's body and he dropped, dead, on the table.

But, in fact, he had not died, he had been given immortality by the Circle of Seven.

It was noon by the time the Seven had buried Jayfeather. It was by the lake so that it could easily be washed out in several moons and float down to the other side, possibly.

The young tom-cat, who had given Jayfeather his death blow, had also buried him, covered in special flowers and plants, which they believed brought peace to him in his afterlife. As they left, Jayfeather became awake again and stuck his paw out of the sand. He pulled himself out and realized something that made him impeccable: he could see!

He wasn't blind anymore and he could look at all the surroundings! He danced around and only realized that the Elder Leaders had been watching when they called to him.

"You survived the ritual?!" the young cat said.

"Yes! Is that what it was? A ritual?!" Jayfeather asked, angered and confused.

"We do that ritual to bring lost cats back to life, as the perfect beings. I believe you were blind, right?" the tom-cat asked.

"Yes, how did you know?!" Jayfeather inquired.

"We have the powers of the ancestors in our hands! We use to ritual to initiate new members. Our members can also fight extraordinarily well. You are a success, now we want you to join us as part of the Seven! Do you accept?"

"Maybe…I'll have to see you in a few moons, okay?"

"I'll give you three." The tom said and the Seven Elder Leaders walked back to the secret cave.

Jayfeather has three moons. What would he decide?

**-End of Chapter Seven-**


End file.
